Ali and Lay’s Mountaineering Blog

Today we choose a high level option as an alternative to the main GR20 route.  Ali and I are first to break camp.  It is good to be walking once again in the early morning sunshine.  We can look back and see that the refuge at Petra Piana is indeed situated on the only level ground within its surroundings.

The initial sharp arêtes soon give way to gentle, undulating grass slopes  and progress is relatively easy.  As we ascend the twin summits of Punta di l Pinzi Corbini we can see Cat and Alan gaining on us.  We climb above the way marked path to the second summit (2,021m) to wait for them.

As we wait the British Army arrive from the South – well a group of about eight lads from the Cheshire Regiment and their Sergeant.  Given the look of them we suspect they are recent recruits and are being “beasted” to improve their fitness.  They stop for a cigarette break!  One lad is so amazed at the lightness of my pack (around 12kg) that he hands it around to his mates in disbelief – I am soon encouraged to try on an army Bergen – it must weigh in excess of 25kg and I guess that is the point of the exercise.

The views are spectacular today and we are somewhat reluctant to descend to the refuge below.  It has been a short day today – around 4 hours but we are happy enough to pitch camp and watch a shepherd drive his flock up onto a craggy outcrop.  We said goodbye to the Belgian lads this morning as they were doing a double day to reach Vizzavona tonight via the low level route.